1 of 365

by | Jan 1, 2025 | 365

One of my biggest faults as a photographer is that I primarily shoot travel photos—(pretty decent travel photos, IMHO ?), but still, photos I took while traveling. Since we don’t travel every day of the year, I don’t use my camera for about three months a year. The rest of the time, my camera resides in my office cabinet.

Fifteen years ago, Kathleen told me, “You only take pictures when we are on trips or for holiday family shots.” I agreed, and in January of that year, I started my first 365-day project. I took one photo a day for the entire year and posted it. I have done three of these 365 projects since, the last in 2018. It’s time for another, so here we go.

This exercise is not just about taking the photo; it’s about learning more about my camera, my lenses, the features I don’t use and how I can use them. I realized the last time I did a 365, I was shooting a much older camera—I believe a Nikon 750. Since then, I have owned a Nikon D-810 and now have a Nikon Z7II. It’s time to learn my Z a little better.

When you are a travel photographer and go out to shoot about three times a year (when I shoot thousands of photos in a short amount of time), you forget things about your camera in between the trips. The simplest things to turn off and on can really mess you up when you start taking photos that you really want.

So, this project I am starting today is about two things: learning how to use my Z7 from top to bottom and finding new and different ways to shoot everyday life. I have seven months and one day from today until our next big trip to Southern Africa, so that gives me a chance to really get to know my camera and learn a little bit more about myself as a photographer.

Above is today’s shot. About two miles from here is this beautiful, small, private lake that is part of a very high-end and expensive development. I walk by this lake all the time, and as my friend Bob will tell you, I have sent him many photos I took with my phone while walking. Today is the first time I have photographed it with my Nikon. It does make a huge difference.

Now, I don’t want you to worry that you will get a notification every day. I would unsubscribe from that myself. But I am going to take the photo and post it on a new page called 365, which you can see in the menu bar above. Then, one day a week, I will post a quick slide show gallery of that week’s photos. If you want to see them sooner, you can check the 365 page anytime. I will also caption them on that page with exactly where I took them, why I took that particular photo and any technical stuff I might have done to it.

Photography is a way of feeling, touching, and loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things long after you have forgotten everything.  —Aaron Siskind

And Now the Photography—My Top Ten

by | Dec 28, 2024 | Photography

I admit it. I have more than ten photos. But I just could not make up my mind. First, I sorted about 3,000 photos to find my favorites. Then, I broke them down and consulted my wonderful bride and my grandson. Both gave me some good advice. I got down to 28. Six of those were puffin photos from the Isle of Lunga in Scotland. One was easy because it was one of a kind, but the others were really good. Kathleen liked one to add to the top ten and Mason another, so with that, I give you my puffins.

A special note (and I will only say it once, I promise): Don’t forget that if you click the first shot, you can scroll through it with your arrow keys or by swiping. And please don’t look at my photography on a phone.

 

And now for the honorable mentions that aren’t puffins. I will put the locations I shot them in the captions. Again, please click the first one and view them in full-screen mode.

This brings us to the Top Ten. Let’s count down to #1. I have set them up as a single photo gallery, so you can click them to view them full-screen.

Number 10—Djupevatn Lake above the town of Gearanger in Norway. I did a quick pano to get the full wide angle. I heard from someone who was on the cruise before ours and, therefore, had visited this lake two weeks before us. They told me it was still frozen over with tons of snow. You really need to click this one to see it in full-screen mode.

Number 9—Eileen Donan in Dornie Scotland from above. This is Kathleen’s family castle. You see, her mother’s maiden name was McCray, and this is the ancestral home of the McCrays. You may recognize it because it has been in many films and is commonly known as one of the most photogenic castles in all of Scotland. I took a ton of photos of it from ground level, but I knew there was a way to get a shot of it from above. As we were leaving the grounds, I asked one of the parking attendants how to get to the ridge above the castle. He swore me to secrecy and gave me exceptional directions that enabled me to get this shot.

Number 8—Lisbon below the Hotel Portugal. We were having our last dinner with our good friends we travel with every October (Steve, Jamie, Mike & Cathy) in a restaurant on top of a nearby hotel when I took this shot of an open-air market about a block from our hotel. It isn’t often that I get two almost aerial shots in one year.

Number Seven—A political demonstration in Lisbon. I don’t think I have ever taken a newsworthy photo before. Something that covers the news that is happening wherever we are. I was walking back from Lisbon’s Pink Street when I crossed a bridge and saw this march below me. It was so unusual for me that I had to include it in my Top Ten.

Number Six—The Tulip Stairs in the Queen’s Castle Greenwich, England. This beautiful photo is all about the angle. I took about 20 shots of this staircase, but the best of them was looking up its spiral.

Number 5—A pastoral scene just outside Plockton, Scotland. We were driving down a very remote but beautiful road headed to Plockton, Scotland, where we were looking for highland coos. We had seen a YouTube video that there were coos in Plockton (if you don’t know what a highland coo is, wait until my number one photo shows up). But there were no coos. But there was a cow on the other side of the bridge over a creek that just grabbed me as I glimpsed it while driving by. Seriously, I had to jam on the brakes (thankfully, no cars within a mile or so) and back up until I could line up the shot. This shot has grown on me since so many people who have seen it told me they really liked it.

Number 4—Incredible Glencoe in Scotland. Besides being the scene of a terrible massacre of Scottish families by British soldiers in 1692, Glencoe is maybe the most beautiful place I have ever seen. As we were driving from Fort William back to Glasgow, we had two routes we could have taken. One was the quickest and easiest, but we had driven up that way a few days earlier. The other way was longer and went through Glencoe. We were tired from our week in the Highlands, but at the last minute, we decided to do Glencoe. On that route, there is a stretch of road with pull-outs for photographers like me to jump out of their cars and shoot the glorious scenery. I think I stopped at all of them. And the weather cooperated with an amazing combination of sun, clouds and blue sky. These mountains are magnificent in every way, and this would have been my number one shot, but like the puffins, I couldn’t decide between the hundreds I took that day. This one is my favorite. One more thing. Please click it to see it full screen—it needs the space to really understand why I love it.

Number 3–Puffins in action on the Isle of Lunga, Scotland. As I mentioned above, when I wrote about my puffin experience, I took a TON of photos that day. I want to say the total was in the high hundreds or low thousands. The hardest part was getting a decent shot of them flying. I lay or sat on the ground, focused on a particular area and shot at least 200 shots. In all of those, the flying puffins were either blurry or so fast that I missed them completely. This was also one of those times when I didn’t know what I had until I got back to our Bed and Breakfast that night and could look through the shots. I had no clue if I had that shot I wanted or not. It turns out I did. Out of those hundreds of attempted action shots, this isn’t the best puffin flying shot I got…it is the ONLY puffin flying shot I got, but it’s a good one, and I worked hard to get it.

Number 2—Isle of Staffa, Scotland. This is one of those photos that makes people gasp when they see it: This guy is so high on this cliff. I love it because it teaches me something as a photographer—you need humans for scale. I have two versions of this same exact shot. One with a human and one without. The one without is boring. The one with a human catches your eye and pulls you right in. Also, please note the naturally occurring basalt columns at the bottom of the cliff. That’s the reason that Staffa is so famous. You should see the cave below the cliff—WOW!

Number 1—My favorite Highland Coo on the Isle of Skye. This guy just called out to me. Actually, he is kind of tired of me. I have an entire series of shots of this guy posing, but this is my favorite. After being disappointed in Plockton when we didn’t find any coos, we were driving by a farm on the Isle of Skye with a small herd right near a fence. We pulled over, and I took quite a few shots. Our forever neighbor Lisa thinks it should be framed and hung in our house or maybe in hers. Either way, I agree. I love it, and I love pretty much all Highland Coos. They are glorious creatures.

Please let me know in the comments what you like or how you would have rearranged the order. I love discussion. 

Which brings us to the end of 2024. This will be my last post of a pretty darn good year with lots of travel, lots of memories and lots of photography. 2025 looks interesting but with a little less travel. We have nothing scheduled until July, when we head to Southern Africa to fulfill my one remaining photo milestone—shooting a safari. BUT…In the meantime, I do have a photographic project coming on January 1, but you will just have to wait until that day to find out about it. Thanks for sticking with me all year long. Travel safely.

That’s all, folks   —Porky Pig

 

 

Top Ten (or Five) Time

by | Dec 27, 2024 | Food Experiences

Every year, right about now, I see all these Top Ten of 2024 lists popping up around the interwebs. A few years ago, I decided to get into the act. At first, I did my “Top Ten  Things That Happened” that year as well as my “Top Five Things I Ate,” and of course, my “Top Ten Photos” I took. For the last two years, it’s been just the photos, and that’s what I am going to do for 2024 as well.

This does not mean that there were not ten great experiences or five great meals; it just means that I didn’t take photos of all of them, and I know you are all about the pictures. If I were to list The Top Ten places We Visited in 2024, they would include:

  1. Scotland (especially the Isle of Skye and shooting the puffins on Lunga).
  2. Norway (especially Geiranger Fjord and Tromsô).
  3. Portugal (especially the Douro, Cascais, Sintra and Lisbon).
  4. England (especially seeing Paul and Gail in Leeds and doing the Ted Lasso tour in Richmond).
  5. Spain (especially our days in Toledo and Segovia).
  6. Olympia, Washington (because our kids live there).
  7. Chilliwack, British Columbia (because our best buddies live there)
  8. Vancouver (because we celebrated our 25th anniversary there with dinner at CinCin, one of our favorite places to eat).
  9. Pacific Beach, Washington (because we spent four days with the kids there during our annual beach trip).
  10. Alameda, California (because we had to be in the Bay Area to settle Kathleen’s mother and brother’s estates, and there are two great restaurants and two great attorneys there.).

And if I had to name my Five Best Bites of 2024, it would have to go in this order:

  1. Venison stew at Ardnamurchan restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland.
  2. Grilled chicken and french fries in an unnamed restaurant in Cascais, Portugal.
  3. Pickled walnuts at The View restaurant in Portree, Scotland.
  4. The appetizer plate (especially the chicken) at Banca di Roma in Glasgow, Scotland.
  5. A toss-up between the lemon tortellini at Rancho Capistrano Winery in San Juan Capistrano, California or the tater tots at Bureau 510 in Alameda, California.

See, I am just going to do my Top Ten Photos. Wait! What have I done? I guess you will have to come back in the next few days (before we get to 2025) to see the photos. Keep an eye out.

And now it’s time for our nightly Top Ten…     David Letterman

 

Last Days in Southern California—Lights, Lights, Lights and more Lights

by | Dec 17, 2024 | Uncategorized

I am starting this post on the 16th of December as we head north tomorrow morning, flying out of John Wayne Airport at 10:45. When we get back to SEA, we will jump in our car and head south to Olympia (not home) because tomorrow night, our grandkids have their winter band concert. Both of them play clarinet, and this is our fifth-grade granddaughter’s first concert. And the really cool thing for me is that we will spend tomorrow night there, which means I will wake up on my birthday at their house on Wednesday morning.

In the meantime, since I last wrote about our visit here, we have done some more cool stuff. After our Christmas boat parade on Friday (see my post here), Saturday was about Christmas at the Mission. San Juan Capistrano is home to a California of the same name. It’s the one that the swallows come back to every year. And this year they were having a Christmas celebration. It was very nice, but we were all a little underwhelmed. Steve and I kept telling each other how they could improve the whole celebration with a lot more lights. But I did get some decent photos of the decorations, the performers and the lights. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

After the show, we went for another of the amazing meals we have had since we got here. I think Jamie and Steve have spent the 18 months since we were here the last time finding new and wonderful restaurants. We did the pizza place the day before, and tonight, after the Mission, we walked about three blocks to Rancho Capistrano Winery. Delicious food and amazing wines.

On Sunday, we had a family day. Jamie’s sister Pam, her husband David and their daughter Analee, as well as our niece Cassie and her beau Omar, all came for dinner. Steve made some delicious rotisserie chicken, and Jamie made some amazing appetizers, baked ziti, meatballs, and so much more. We again ate ourselves to bursting. January is going to be a very dry and lean month for us.

This morning, I went out and took my usual walk, and just to prove that I don’t always take great photos, I took at least 50 and only found three I liked. One was a shot I took walking over Interstate 5. I am always amazed that this highway, which is about eight blocks from my brother’s house, is also about 15 minutes from my daughter’s house and about 40 minutes from ours. Kathleen drove on this road every weekday for more than 15 years to commute to work. When I was in college, I used to drive a truck on it almost every day. When I lived in Eugene, Oregon, I spent many an hour driving up and down that part of it. When I lived in Rogue River, Oregon, I lived about a mile from it. It’s kind of been the road of my life. So I had to take a photo this morning.

This evening, we went for an amazing Greek meal at Greek Bistro in Laguna Hills. WOW! It might even be better than Chris’ Taverna (my favorite Greek restaurant in Florida—I love Greek food, and we have a hard time finding it in Redmond). Then, after, we were off to look at some of the most amazing Christmas light displays we have ever seen. In case you haven’t seen the photos my brother posted of their house, they are REALLY into decorating for holidays, and they do a super classic job of it. Here’s what their place looks like this year. All of these pics are ones that I stole from him. It is truly impressive. You will note that every window has a theme.

And these are the ones we saw last night on our Christmas light drive (a tradition that Kathleen and I do as well). We were in a very wealthy section of Laguna Hills that I can’t remember the name of. The lights there were amazing.

The last few of those are a couple of places back near their home that had a LOT of lights. Living proof that sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. ?

That about concludes our trip to Southern California. We had a super time, ate and drank way too much, and my sister-in-law Jamie was a great tour guide. I would use her as my Southern California travel agent every time we are here. Plus, free room and board is quite the incentive. I am finishing this up at 3:30 AM on the day we go to the airport to fly back to Seattle, then drive to Olympia to see the kids play in their winter (Christmas) concert tonight and then home to our place tomorrow. Thanks for reading along on this short journey. I hope my photos have gotten you deeply into the holiday spirit. If this hasn’t done it, then maybe this video Steve found last night will—click here.

Deck the halls and light the lights; it’s time for some festive delights!  —Santa Claus

 

Six Years…Thank You for Reading

by | Dec 16, 2024 | Uncategorized

I just had to mention (before I finish our visit to Southern California) that today is the sixth anniversary of my starting this blog. And, of course, I started it with a complaint (I guess I might really be Victor Mildrew–my Brit friends know what I am talking about)about how much I hate the word “blog.” Here’s that first post.

I want to thank both my loyal readers who comment on just about everything. You are the best, and just know that many times, as I am writing, I think of one of you and say something like (in my head), “Bob will appreciate this,” or “I bet Susan comments on this one.” I wanted you to know it is you who has kept me doing this for six years, and it’s you who I hope will let me do it for six more.

I also want to tell new and old readers who only read this when I am traveling that it’s OK to do that. The rest of my life can be kind of boring. It’s even OK if you only read when we are traveling somewhere amazing, as opposed to my family trips. But keep coming back and checking in, as our travels will continue (I hope). You, too, are appreciated.

Thanks to all for putting up with my “luxury motor coach” and my “Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please….,” and all my other repeated warnings and comments. I know I sound like a broken record sometimes but I really hate it when people look at my photos on a phone or cruise lines call a bus a “luxury motor coach.”

Lastly, a huge thanks to those of you who have commented on my photography. That’s the main reason I post here—my photos. Photography is my hobby, my passion and the best outlet for my creativity.

Watch this space in the future. More of all of it is still on the way.

OMG! I almost forgot this (shame on me). Thanks to my proofreader, my travel companion and the absolute love of my life. I write this blog for a lot of reasons but one of the biggest is to chronicle our life together. I love you, Kathleen. Thanks for putting up with all the time I have spent writing this.

Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvelous.   —Bill Moyers